After reportedly buying human remains from a lady on Facebook, a guy from Pennsylvania was charged with abusing a body.
Jeremy Lee Pauley, 40, was detained for attempting to purchase the corpse from a mortuary worker online. Pauley is well known for buying bones and teeth that he restores and resells.
Pauley has made some disturbing purchases, such as “antiques” pelvis and “very old” child’s skulls.
According to authorities, Candace Scott stole human remains worth $4,000 from a mortuary affiliated with the University of Arkansas, and Pauly allegedly paid her for them.
The human remains included a female pelvis, a torso with a nipple, a half-head, a full-head, three brains, a heart, a liver, a lung, two kidneys, and four hands.
Scott in Pennsylvania was supposed to deliver the consignment to the shop owner, but authorities detained the remains in transit.
Following an inquiry that began on June 14 when police got a tip regarding Pauley’s dubious behaviour and his collections, he was taken into custody on Thursday.
After being detained, Pauley was freed on a $50,000 bond.
The discovery shocked the officers, and the Cumberland District Attorney described the probe as “bizarre.”
“This is the most strange inquiry I have seen in my thirty-three years as a prosecutor,” remarked Sean M. McCormack.
A case like this presents itself just when you think you have seen it all.
According to the caller who gave the police the tip, Pauley’s basement had “multiple” five-gallon buckets filled with human remains.
The remains, which included human brains, hearts, livers, skin, and lungs, were later found by investigators.
The bones found in Pauley’s basement were indeed human body parts, according to Dr. Wayne Ross.
A spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas claimed that although the remains donated to the school’s Medical Sciences division before being sold to Pauley were donated, an employee later removed them from the mortuary.
Leslie Taylor, a spokesperson, told CBS News.
“We are horrified that such a thing could happen,” the statement reads. “We are very sensitive of those who donate their bodies.”
The Grand Wunderkammer, owned by Pauley, is a store that offers “strange and weird” things to the general public and for museum exhibits. According to his Facebook, he is also the executive director and curator at The Memento Mori Museum.
His odd collections have gained him a following online, and his almost 6,000 Facebook fans are now curious as to what will become of him.
Online, one admirer wrote: “Chin up, my friend. You’ve got a bigger army of supporters than you realise.”
Those of us who are aware recognise your reliability.
Many people have “half human heads” and teeth, they said, adding that they “still love and support” Pauley and “appreciate everything” he does for “the oddities community.”
A few days prior to his arrest, Pauley shared a picture of his most recent purchase—a plastic container full with medical bones. “Picked up more medical bones to sort through,” he wrote as the caption for the photo.
Pauley offered and sold a “antique articulated half pelvis with sacrum and 5 vertebrae” a few days earlier on August 7.
Pauley claims that the business owner also sells hundreds of bagged teeth, some of which have stains from “an old school disinfectant used back in the day.”